I almost hate (but not quite) to interrupt the fascinating analysis of what BXVI is up to (if anything), but here are a few items of interest for week-end reading.Paul Kennedy, sometime CWL writer and Yale professor, has a provocative look at a political no-no word that we might want to discuss, "A Time to Appease": http://www.nationalinterest.org/article/a-time-to-appease-3539David Mitchell, author of our summer favorite, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, is interviewed in the current issue of The Paris Review (#193; snippet only, but it's not long, support small magazines or, if you must, go to the book store or library). Quite a story: an Englishman who now lives in Ireland was a long-time resident of Japan (must love Island Life). http://www.parisreview.com/viewinterview.ph/prmMID/6034And then, our president has come out in support of the Islamic cultural center a few blocks from WTC site, and our mayor is found to be a fierce defender of it. Now this is politics! Obama: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/us/politics/14obama.html?_r=1&hp Bloomberg: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13bloomberg.html